Borthwick builds his England case with another big hundred

Nottinghamshire 534 and 104 for 1 lead Durham 477 (Borthwick 188*, Bird 4-109) by 191 runsScorecard

Having so far failed in their efforts to convince the England selectors of the merits of Mark Stoneman as a viable contender for a top-order Test place, Durham can be expected to mount a similar clamour behind Scott Borthwick after the left-hander’s impressive start to the season continued.

The consensus on Stoneman’s form in 2015 was that, while he had another solid season, encompassing three hundreds and 1,000 first-class runs for a third summer in a row, he had done nothing outstanding, the definition of which was made plain by the new England head coach, Trevor Bayliss.

Bayliss said that it would take “five or six” hundreds if a batsman was to present a compelling case, as Adam Lyth did when he forced himself into the picture by racking up six hundreds, two of them doubles, on the way to scoring almost 1,500 Championship runs in 2014.

By that measure, though, it can be argued that Borthwick is at least on course. The 26-year-old from Sunderland, whose 1,286 Championship runs last season were exceeded only by Somerset’s James Hildreth, already has 574 runs in the bank for 2016 and his unbeaten 188 here, the second highest score of his career, was his third hundred not only of the season but in his last five innings. His average in the Championship is 82.00 and he can point also to two first-class hundreds playing for Wellington during the off-season.

He has enjoyed the benefits of a generally good natured surface here, as is reflected in combined first-innings scores of 981, but it might also be taken into account that no other Durham batsman reached fifty. A few balls went past his bat but there were no serious errors …

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